May 29, 2008

words of wisdom

Jeff has been out of town all week and so I've been playing a little game. That I find this game so incredibly fascinating and so much fun gives you some small glimpse into my twisted mind. Essentially, I decided that once he left the house Monday morning, I was not allowed to go grocery shopping. I had to survive on whatever we already had in the house, for 4 days, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The two exceptions were Tuesday morning breakfast, which our office provides each week, and Tuesday night for dinner, when I'd already agreed to meet a friend for sushi.

Oh, and I decided this as I was driving back from taking him to the airport, so it's not like I'd stocked the fridge with food. In fact, you'd have sworn the cupboard was just about bare if you had peeked inside.

I'm almost at the end of the game and I'm pretty much batting a thousand. One night's dinner was bacon and eggs and a small green salad; another night I made rice and beans with hell-quenching amounts of hot sauce, and tonight I'm contemplating veggie burgers (frozen, not homemade) or Indian food.

To be honest, I thought my little game would provide nothing more than a bit of amusement, a dash of intellectual and creative stimulation, and, it must be said, an excellent way to coddle my own laziness.

But when I wrote to my little brother about the experiment, he said something that was so rooted in truth, on so many levels, that it stopped me in my tracks. And I've been thinking about it a lot ever since.

"It is funny how much food we have in our house when we say we have none."

I kind of do this thing all the time without thinking about it... Hence the leftover egg fried rice with guanciale, shrivelled mushrooms and 1.5 week old lettuce I am eating for my lunch today. It still tastes better than anything I could get at the work canteen

So funny - I'm kind of in the middle of the same sort of game. Got home yesterday and the fridge is e-m-p-t-y. The only thing I've purchased so far is half and half for the coffee, and I'm kind of having fun rooting around the cupboards and freezer.

It's true--we rarely use everything we have before we think we need more. There was an interesting series in the local paper by an employee of the paper who only ate what was in her freezer--for months!She did buy perishables during that time, but she saved a TON of money & lasted quite a while on what she already had. I plan to do that myself--use up EVERYTHING in the freezer. Let's see how creative I can get (supplementing with fresh summer veggies, of course--I'm not crazy!).

I love this game... especially when dean is so surprised to still get a terrific hot meal when he can't find anything to eat!! Don't be fooled...they are all winners. I like food, I loathe the trip to the grocery!

You are making me feel guilty. My SO is going away for the weekend and I was planning on stopping at the store so I could have all the things he won't eat while he is gone. I've been fantasizing about shrimp and grits for a week.

My partner doesn't always like what I come up with when I try to clean out the cupboards (who could blame her, really...) so the last time she was out of town I just let myself go crazy. Unfortunately it meant I ate some REALLY WEIRD concoctions. I'm talking "gosh, this would have been an interesting grain salad if I hadn't put in the apricots AND the kitchen sink." The benefits were: the cupboards were emptier, I now know that I don't like that brand of whole wheat pasta, and my scrounging skills were exercised. All around, a successful weekend alone. :)

Strangely, her parents always buy more food when we visit even though their fridge, freezer, cupboards, etc. are already stuffed to bursting. Our food stores are paltry in comparison, because it drives me nuts when they're so full I don't know what I have! You're brother is a wise man.

Hi,
I found your site while parusing food related blogs. I am working at the Dinner Tonight blog (www.marthastewart.com/dinnertonight) and was hoping to get some feedback from other food bloggers on what they thought of the site. If you get a minute and can check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts, either via email (asickelka@marthastewart.com) or in the comments section.
Thanks,
Alison S.

Shamefully, I could almost make dinner for a third world country with what is contained in my walk-in pantry, on my shelves, in my microwave cart and in both of my freezers. I just went to the Farmer's Market last night and loaded up the cart. Why, why?

I have done something similar - I do not go to the grocery store - on purpose - until I do not have any meals left to fix. It does force you to eat what you have when you think you do not have anything - sometimes you have to look deep into the freezer! In addition to "spring cleaning" you will save hundreds of dollars at the grocery store. What a bonus!